Syria ceasefire 'collapsing'

ITV News has seen the most convincing evidence yet that the ceasefire in Syria is collapsing. Our International Editor Bill Neely has witnessed violence on both sides in Khaldiya, a suburb in the city of Homs, which once held by rebels.

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Polls have opened as Syrians cast their votes in multi-party parliamentary elections as the opposition are expected to widely boycott a poll largely expected to bring pro-Assad lawmakers into parliament.

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Heavy fighting between rebels and government troops erupted overnight in the capital of an oil producing province in eastern Syria, residents and activists said.

They said rebels armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked tank positions in the eastern sector of the city of Deir al-Zor on the Euphrates rive, in response to an army offensive against several towns and villages in the province that have killed dozens of people in recent days.

An explosion in a car wash in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has killed at least five people, activists said, while another blast in the capital destroyed nine cars.

The blast in Aleppo hit a car wash and killed six people, Aleppo activist Mohammed Saeed said via Skype.

He said the business in the city's southern Sukari neighbourhood is owned by a man who serves in pro-government militias known as the shabiha. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside Syria, said five people were killed in the attack.

Also an explosive planted under an army vehicle in Damascus blew up, damaging nine cars.The blast shook a central neighbourhood near a military food co-operative, and left a crater in the street, according to a reporter who visited the scene.

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ITV News International Editor Bill Neely is in the Syrian capital of Damascus. He has uncovered compelling evidence that the UN brokered ceasefire has collapsed and the UN monitors are having little impact.

Syrian government forces carried out war crimes during a two-week offensive in the northern province of Idlib shortly before an April 12 ceasefire came into effect, an international human rights watchdog has said.

Human Rights Watch said troops killed at least 95 civilians and burned or destroyed hundreds of houses, as UN special envoy Kofi Annan was negotiating with the Syrian government to end the fighting.

In a 38-page report, the group documented summary executions, killings of civilians and arbitrary detentions and torture that it says qualify as war crimes.